Nick Ayers passed on job as Trump's chief of staff. Who else turned down White House gigs?

President Donald Trump is considering at least four people to serve as his next chief of staff, after plans for an orderly succession for departing John Kelly fell through. (Dec. 10)
AP

Nick Ayers became the latest person to turn down a White House job when he took himself out of the running to become President Donald Trump's next chief of staff on Sunday.

Ayers was already working in the administration as Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, but with triplets at home, he balked at the hours that would come with the grueling White House job. Instead, he plans to work on Trump's re-election campaign.

White House job offers are often kept private by the administration and the people who get them, so we may never know all the people who have turned down positions in the administration, but in June, CNN reported that the administration was having a tough time filling vacancies.

Nick Ayers(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

The White House posted open positions on job websites and sought recruits at a job fair, CNN reported.

"We were never in a position where we had to post administration jobs on Monster or job boards, period," Mark Friedmann, an adviser to the Presidential Personnel Office during the Obama administration, told the network.

Here is a look at others who have turned down White House gigs since Trump's election:

Bill Gates

Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in an April interview with the medical news site STAT that he was talking with Trump in March about a universal flu vaccine when he suggested that the president should fill the vacant White House science adviser position.

According to Gates, Trump offered him the job.

"That’s not a good use of my time," Gates told the president.

Tucker Carlson

According to author Michael Wolff, Trump considered a number of conservative television and radio personalities to fill the role of White House press secretary – including Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo and Ann Coulter – before settling on Sean Spicer.

In "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Wolff wrote that Trump actually offered the job to one pundit: Fox News' Tucker Carlson. Carlson turned it down, choosing to instead advocate for the president's policies as host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

Chris Christie

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wanted to join the administration in 2017 as Trump's attorney general, a position that eventually went to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions.

In holding out for the top law enforcement job Christie reportedly rejected a number of potential posts in the administration, including ambassador to Italy and heading either Homeland Security or Veteran Affairs.

Robert Harward

Retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, was rumored to be the favorite to replace national security adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned less than a month after the inauguration.

Jason Miller

Miller, who worked on Trump's presidential campaign, initially accepted a position as the White House communications director during the transition in December 2016. But he then declined the offer. Months later, it was revealed that he had an affair during the campaign with fellow aide A.J. Delgado.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/12/10/rejected-white-house-job-offers/2267092002/